Nimcha with markings

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by ariel

Nope. Wolf in Hebrew is Ze'ev. And it ain't no Hebrew letters.

i came across a site that translated 'zivia' as 'wolf' or more properly the female version ie. she-wolf, can't find it now, others translate it as 'gazelle or deer' of god (sivyah, tzivia,tzivia - variants). anyway was clutching at straws, lettering didn't look overly arabic to me & the central blob looked animalistic.

maybe the mfg/stamper was not hebrew but liked the name. maybe it was transliterated during the attempts at romanizing yiddish in the 16th/17th centuries.

ah, found one:
Meaning of name: zivia

another which says deer or wolf:Linky

interesting that zeva is geek for sword per that link....

looks like it could mean either or just about anything else too as it's a bit crudely stamped/cut. we need an arabic scholar's view at this.